This year’s K2019, the world’s largest plastic and rubber expo held every 3 years, in, Dusseldorf, Germany brought together over 3,300 exhibitors consisting of plastic businesses and the world’s leading organizations and attracting over 225,000 visitors from 165 countries, who came to see latest innovations and explore business opportunities throughout the five days of the fair.

A topic that entrepreneurs around the world focused on was plastics for sustainable development, which was also one of the core themes of K2019. This was evident in the innovations featured in the booths of many world-class exhibitors, which applied the principles of circular economy to material designs, manufacturing processes, and end-products to improve recyclability and respond to global demands for greater sustainability – a trend that is accentuated with a survey conducted in the fair which showed that the circular economy ranked among the top three topics of interest for visitors.

SCG is once again an exhibitor at this year’s event. The company showcased various innovative products and stories, all strung together under the overarching theme “Passion for a Better World,” which highlights  the company’s commitment to delivering innovative plastic products and solutions in support of the circular economy concept along with co-developing new products with its partners to address needs in creating a more sustainable world. SCG demonstrated at the eventits readiness and openness for new collaborations that would lead to sustainable innovations – which is key to making circular economy possible.

The innovative products and services that were the highlights of SCG Booth which are example of how the company incorporated circular economy concepts included the following:

Durable plastics

Improving the durability of materials and prolonging its use is one way of incorporating the concept of circular economy into the product development process. Examples include products such as Black polyethylene compound PE112 – SCG™ HDPE H112PC Developed and produced with SCG’s patented technology, the compound is designed for the production of industrials pipes and is superior to PE100 used in regular pipes.

Pipes produced with SCG™ HDPE H112PC have a longer lifespan compared to those made with PE100 because they are 50% more resistant, making them perfect for mining businesses. Additionally, they are also 10% more resistant to pressure, which means that the thickness of the pipe wall can be reduced, allowing a greater volume of gas or water to be transferred.

Recycle-friendly plastic resins

In response to the demand for fully recyclable plastics, SCG is introducing Mono-Material Packaging, where each film layers in flexible packaging is made of the same material. The company also developed CIERRA^® – Barrier, an additive that enhances barrier films, enabling them to prevent air and moisture from permeating into the packaging. The innovation eliminates the need for a metal coating between the layers and thus makes the packaging fully recyclable.

Post-Consumer Recycled Resins (PCR) were also exhibited within the booth. As they are produced to meet European standards, consumers can be certain that they are clean, safe, odorless, and able to retain all their core properties, making them ideal for plastic bags, bottles for consumer products, and bottle caps for carbonated beverages.

Plastic resins with enhanced strength for reduced material consumption

SMX™ Technology by SCG, has enabled the production of polyethylene resins with improved strength, making it possible to reduce the thickness of the product while retaining the same level of strength without making any changes to the manufacturing process or machinery. This technology can produce different grades of polyethylene for different applications and enhance the properties of the product.

One of theproducts created with SMX™ Technology is SMX™ 551BU – a polyethylene resin for intermediate bulk containers (IBC). Because of its high melt strength, the resin makes it possible to reduce the thickness of the container walls and allows for easier molding and production control. Its excellent chemical resistance and strength prevents leakage and increases safety when transferring chemicals. By consuming 10% less material (depending on the model), less carbon dioxide is released in the production of these tanks as well.

Apart from high-quality plastic resins, SCG also has experts in many other fields, who are continuously seeking new solutions in order to deliver a full range of services, from material selection, product formulation, product development, product design,engineering design and business networking, to meet the needs of our customersas along with achieving mutual business growth sustainably.

We are proud to have presented these products, which are only a fraction of our innovations, on a world stage. However, what is more important is our commitment to co-develop products with our customers, converters, and brand owners, using our comprehensive range of innovations and solutions to increase our competitive capacity, while also protecting the environment and advocating the circular economy concept – a model that we believe in and strive to apply to our business practices and act as a catalyst for a shift towards circularity across the industry and achieve sustainability for a better world together.

“As we are more of a distributor company, we see that circular economy really affects our clients.

We are helping them with guidance for recycled materials, the impact on environment and climate change.

We try to collaborate with all clients to take some measure for the circular economy and to make it in practice.”

 

Paulo Dinis

Owner of Mibepa

“As a company involve in packaging and a polymer distributor, we have a role to play in sustainability.

We are looking at various projects in terms of PET recycling.

We’ve already started the investment in getting the supply chain of collection as a main challenge in Africa.

I’m sure when it’s time to come, there’s a lot of change in that direction. We are doing that for PP and PE as well.

We’ve invested a lot of time and money for sustainability in the markets that we are operating

because we believe we owe the communities.”

 

Vijay Kavishwar

COO

SARA